A Disappointing, Unrewarding Transfer Window For Newcastle

It was a disappointing transfer window for Newcastle with the club starting out wanting a winger, central midfielder and striker in early January.

Half way through the month that was reduced to a winger and a striker and then we heard Newcastle had to do loan deals this month (the last transfer window of the 2016-2107 financial year) because owner Mike Ashley didn’t want to spend much money.

James McCarthy became too expensive from Everton at £20M and for whatever reason, even though it seemed possible until about three hours ago, we failed to get Andros Townsend in on loan today.

Rafa Benitez – will now press on in Championship So that means we brought in no players at all to strengthen the squad – not even any development players.

The only good point is that Tim Krul got a new loan deal to AZ Alkmaar for the rest of the season and he will go up against first choice goalkeeper 23 year-old Uruguayan Sergio Rochet – let’s hope Tim gets lots of games.

And Chick Tiote finally left the club after almost seven years – it was a two year deal to Chinese Super league club Shandong Luneng

It’s got to be a disappointing window for Newcastle, but now we have Mo Diame and Chancel Mbemba back from the Africa Cup of Nations and we have to press on with getting promoted.

Christian Atsu at the very latest will return to Newcastle early next week and be available for the game at Wolves a week on Saturday.

The push for promotion starts tomorrow night against QPR at home, followed by a tough game against Derby County and Steve McClaren, also at home on Saturday afternoon.

If we can get two wins in those games that will help us forget about last Saturday at Oxford and this transfer window.

We’ve been good enough for an automatic promotion spot in the first 27 games of the season – now we have 19 games left to ensure we are a Premier League club next season and back in the spotlight after one season down below.

42 comments so far

I am quite disappointed as I think we could have done with at least 1/2 fresh faces, but at the end of the day with the ACON boys coming back I definitely think we can still go up. But questions need answering on whether this was Ashley refusing to pay the money, not letting rafa get what he wants, or whether it was simply clubs not willing to do deals.

In the summer I definitely think we will make major changes to the squad with more quality will more likely want to come to us IF we get promoted.

Let’s hope jonjo doesn’t get injured, we are riding our luck on that…let’s hope we can have a plan b without him…

I think we are on course for my preseason prediction of second place qualification. I have a feeling we will head the chasing pack behind Brighton, who will be 4-7 points ahead by season end. We may even have a dip to third for a while.

Looks like I was right, nothing has changed at the toon. On townsend glad he’s not coming, we needed a LW at a push but more importantly cover for shelvey. Having said that we have by far the best squad and as I said yesterday…..if we can’t get promoted with what we already have then rafa will have failed

You can see what is going to happen already. We start losing games get caught by the chasing pack who have all strengthened then Rafa points the finger at not being backed in the window. We’ve not looked convincing for weeks. Now that we have a team within 3 points of us the pressure is now far greater. Top and bottom of it is that this squad is nowhere near good enough for premier league football so we should have bought now. Even if we manage to get promotion we’re already now playing catch up

Jimmy, When Shelvey was out, everyone focussed on Shelvey not being there as the issue. Rafa wasn’t tactically flexible enough to change set up. I’ve argued he is trying to build cohesion and a strong system for the future when we aren’t hot favourites, but another issue that sees Shelvey out for a while would have to see us change tactics. I think he probably would, but failure to do so would be damaging.

Munster, Unless we got an up and coming gem, Rafa is probably as good as it gets for us currently. I don’t know anyone who thinks he should be sacked, but some on here seem to think that any criticism of him means you want him out. I don’t get that, the only think that is so clear cut at this club are the black and white stripes on the shirt. There is an element of grey area in just about every aspect of the rest of the club. Why should Rafa be exempt, when he has clearly made errors. Even when he has admitted he got something wrong, some won’t accept that criticism and questioning his mistake is right.

NUFC For Sale, If we start losing games, get caught by the chasing pack and don’t get promoted the blame doesn’t lie with this window surely….

Look at the first choice 16 for the current top 8. How many of each of the other 7 would improve our current first 16? Maybe 1 or 2 of each? Possibly 3 or 4 at a push? We still have a stronger first choice and greater depth, even without signings. We will (in my opinion) go up, but if we don’t then blame falls squarely on players and Rafa. Not this window.

Cork is a massive Stoke fan so they use him for the reporting as he apparently has contacts at the club. Doesn’t matter if he’s a cricketer……at least he’s a former sportsman, unlike most of the other reporters

The fact that bmouth supposedly bid £18million shows just how ridiculous the market is becoming.

We’ll see what happens. We keep winning and go back top nobody will be complaining and just looking forward to the summer, we lose a few games and even drop into playoffs god knows what this fan base will be like.

The fact that bmouth supposedly bid £18million shows just how ridiculous the market is becoming.

We’ll see what happens. We keep winning and go back top nobody will be complaining and just looking forward to the summer, we lose a few games and even drop into playoffs god knows what this fan base will be like.

The next few weeks are going to be tough We will get a result I think against qpr but will be hammered by derby for lots of reasons some football some not It does remain however that if we win 11 games from 19 we will go up As long as Rafa stays I don’t see that as a massive ask But if he goes it’s a mountain and the noise is not positive

Oh for goodness sake if Rafa ‘goes after’ the opposition a bit more we should be fine. He chose not to play 442 at home without shelvey because of his stubbornness. Fans of clubs who have been in this division for years (eg Leeds and forest) have said we have the best playing squad they have seen and I agree. No more home cock ups please. I’m confident of promotion but the real test may come next season

Welsh/Our Toon, I don’t get Sky Sports, but he was a Lancashire player from memory, so a spit and a stride to Stoke. A massive Stoke fan? I wonder what is thoughts are on Bojan joining Mainz on loan. He could have been a cracking loan signing for the number 10 role, and has enough versatility to play wide in a narrow 4231 as well.

Well that’s right Lil. We did ok in the absence of Shelvey, but should it happen again, you’d hope we’d make better use of the very good squad we have. We have the players to play more “conventionally” and still consistently beat sides in this division even without our star man.

I’ve posted I few comments tonight and all I can say is the toon supporters will never stop going to the games hence why Ashley will never sell am a season ticket holder but I won’t renew end of season I only reamed cos Rafa came thinking there would be change I was wrong I don’t blame Rafa for anything he as done since he came here I love the man to bits he is the best manager we’ve had since keegan and Robson he might not play the best formation and sometimes the football is boring but that’s cos the players we have but at the end of the day this man could turn this club round in tine but we have one problem ash the man that’s running this club how much evidence do we need to prove that it’s riting on the wall but it’s a shame loads of fans o. Here don’t believe it’s. All I get is back the team Robson would be Turing in his grave rite now

So we didn’t buy Townsend or anyone else for that matter- so what. We have a good squad already – for the Championship and that is what it’s all about. If we could have got T/end on loan without strings – £13m +loan fee quoted at £2m just too much money +£65k pw wages- too much money especially if we are’nt promoted. So get real everybody cos if we are promoted half of our current crop of ‘Good Players ‘aren’t good enough for the Premier league and will have to sold to make way for better quality. There will be a shed load of money to be spent come Promotion (hopefully) and that’s when Mike Ashley will really be held to account. Time to get behind Rafa and the club and stop acting like grumpy bastards. Howay The Lads !

With Reading but three points behind us, albeit we’ve got two games in hand on them, we really need three points tomorrow night. A defeat’d make things tricky going forward.

It’s seemingly Palace who called the deal off but we don’t know why. We need to hear positive words from Rafa and oh, a statement from the club wouldn’t go amiss – a statement why the Townsend deal failed, not the usual over the line crap. Rafa needs to know he has the unconditional support of the owner too.

Anyway, onwards and upwards and our fans really need to get behind Rafa and the lads tomorrow – discontent can only be counterproductive.

Well we did what I expected ..f@@k all. Will see Rafa playing negative team tomorrow to prove a point. Not bothered about Townsend but we needed a creative MF player just in case Shelvey gets injured. Suggest you book your hotel for the playoffs , hope this gut feeling is wrong.

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